Hands-on: Summon Night: Swordcraft Story

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A breath of fresh air? On GBA?

By Mark Bozon

Along with the import classic Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation hitting the Game Boy Advance later this year, Atlus and Banpresto have yet another surprise for pocket gamers that have yet to move onto the Nintendo DS entirely. Summon Night: Swordcraft Story combines the classic overhead gameplay of nearly every Super NES role playing game, set apart with an impressively solid battle system reminiscent of Namco's "Tales" series. Though we're still quite early in the game (nearing the eight hour mark), it's already apparent that Summon Night has the chance to bring a much needed breath of fresh air to the GBA scene, as it provides solid gameplay despite the over-used RGP formula we've seen for decades.

It's Traditional: When popping this one into our GBA for the first time, we really didn't know what to expect from Summon Night. The series has done relatively well in Japan, but with this being the first move to the GBA (and at a time where the platform is slowly dwindling) it was really a shot in the dark as to whether or not Summon Night would step up to the plate or simply fill shelf space like so many others before it. The story is amazingly formulaic, following a young male or female apprentice in a quest to become a "Craftlord," which is essentially a town guardian that is one part royal knight, and one part expert blacksmith. In addition to forging their own weapons, players will have to make choices early on in the game that determine their guardian summon, an ally that will amplify the hero's abilities in battle, acting as the primary form of magic and support. Depending on how the player answers a few basic personality questions, the game will generate one of four different beasts to fill the position.

From there, the adventure is made up of dungeon crawling, level building and weapon creation. As part of the tournament to become the town's newest Craftlord, the player must venture into the caverns below the city, gathering materials to create new weapons of increasing strength. The entire overworld control is very reminiscent of nearly every other RPG on GBA, as players will navigate from area to area, have pre-determined conversations with AI people, buy and sell items at various shops and engage in random battles. The city and dungeon design is pretty strong, though a bit basic at times, and the dialogue is solid, giving off a strong style to the world of Summon Night. Even with a strong overall presentation Summon Night would be just another RPG if it wasn't for the battle system, which is where the game sets itself apart from the competition.

Doing Battle: Rather then embracing the age-old formula of turn-based combat, Summon Night takes a page from Namco, integrating side-scrolling combat nearly identical to Tales of Phantasia for Game Boy Advance. When a random battle occurs, players are taken to a side-view battlefield which shows the engaging characters in a super-deformed art style. Control is limited to one attack button and one action button, as well as the option of switching between up to four different weapons at any time, or five different spells for your summon beast.

Changing weapons on the fly is really where a huge amount of the depth comes into play, since it is literally an instantaneous switch between offense styles. Depending on how well-rounded the character has been built, players can literally swap offense mid-air or at the last second before making contact with the enemies. There are five styles of weapon in the game (Sword, Axe, Spear, Knuckle and Drill), each with a branching tech-tree of upgradeable characteristics. An expert player will be able to dash into battle swinging a battle axe, switch on the fly to the amazingly fast knuckles, perform a feigning jump backwards with their blade, and then finish the attack by landing on the ground and spearing from a distance. It really is an amazing feel when you get used to the controls, and the speed and fluidity is quite impressive.

To be honest, from what we've seen thus far Summon Night actually trumps Tales of Phantasia in the gameplay department, as the aged Japan port by Namco still uses clunky side-scrolling combat and far less options during combat. At the same time, battles occur at a much higher rate in Summon Night, so if the gameplay doesn't satisfy your needs you'll find yourself chucking your GBA across the room in no time. Summon Night has you battling a ton. We're talking once every dozen or so steps. As progression continues players have a chance of equipping different items to drop the battle rate, but since the equip options play a backseat to the adventure (you essentially have one equipped item, be it boots, a cloak or talisman) you'll have to choose just how important battle frequency truly is. We've still got a ton to play in Summon Night, but one thing is already blatantly apparent: If the battle system hooks you, Summon Night can truly impress.

Since there's still a great deal of gameplay left to explore in Summon Night, we're going to save our impressions on the graphical and audio presentation until the official review. From this point it's been a bit on the shallow side graphically, especially in the amount of battle screen backgrounds, but that could all change drastically as the story continues. Be sure to keep an eye out for our full review soon, and definitely keep this one on your radar if you're a fan of the action-RPG genre. Summon Night may seem traditional in its formula, but the entertaining gameplay alone has kept us interested thus far. Be sure to check out the videos and screens in our media section, or chat it up with other GBA fans on the Game Boy Message Boards